Patty Cake Patty Cake

Ooops! That's not cake mix there is it Darlin'? ;-)

I always say many hands make light work and teamwork is the best work. Ayup, that's what I always say so I let Lori do the epoxy glue mixin' and fillin' in the seams and kerfs on the boat tonight while I supervised. Hey! Somebody had to supervise, Boots wasn't around, the slacker!

She did good! Look at the concentration on her face! :-)

More gluing and filling tomorrow then Saturday we might tape the seams between the bottom and side panels. Standby....

It's been slow....

but I'm getting back into the boat building frame of mind. Lori and I have started to glue the bottom & side panels together. Yesterday's episode involved mixing up a big batch of epoxy & pecan flour for the glue. We mixed waaaaaaaaaaay too much! ;-) The remnants make for some funky epoxy art! ;-) (about $10 worth of materials *sigh*)

We couldn't get it on the boat quick enough before it kicked off. I could feel it getting really hot in my hand. Next time it'll be smaller batches. We learn as we go.

Today we hung the transom.

This afternoon will involve more glue to get these panels all locked into place. Standby....

If it won't budge get a BIGGER HAMMER!

Strapped
Screwed
Blocked
Beaten
Pried
Bent
Tugged and.......

Whipped into submission!

My pry bar is still in there somewhere with a chisel too! :-)

'Round and 'round we go again

and again.

One of the toughest parts of assembling one of these boats, other than falling on your head is bending the bottom panels around the forms at the bow.

There's a lot of tension built up in those panels when you ratchet them into shape. I've run into a little problem with aligning the panels correctly but have gotten some tips form other TW28 builders to try tomorrow. You can see it better here where one bottom panel overlaps the other.

That took 3 attempts to get to that point. I'll try again tomorrow. Other than that the only other thing I accomplished was putting a door on the front of the shed where there's been only a tarp for the last 5 months. Doh!

A few pics from ON HIGH!

Looking fwd.

Looking aft.

Chillin' time! :-)

Dump ducks and

some light duties in the boat shed tonight.

Stopped at Subway for meatball sub tonight. Decided to sit down by the water and enjoy it and who shows up? A Dump Duck! Lori will tell you I have no likening of these foul birds.

So along with the cat paw prints on the hood of the Jeep I now have webbed dump duck prints too! *sigh*

One of the fella's on the boat building bulletin boards suggested I use two barrels and a plank to help prevent the lil' accident I had last week. For some reason I don't see how using two buckets is gonna help! ;-)

You know what I always say? "Safety First!" Ayup, that's what I always say! ;-) I'm thinkin' this will help me keep to that! It's nice and light and just the right size for working under the hull. I'm sure Lori will approve!

One of the butt joints on the side panels broke when I bent it around the forward forms so tonight I ground the fiberglass off of it and reglassed and glued it.

Once this is set up I'll get back to stitching panels together. I hope to get the transom and the bow bent into shape and stitched this weekend if my wrist cooperates.

That's it for now. Tomorrow is the last car club meet of the year so there won't be any boat building stuff posted till Saturday. Standby.

Hurricane Irene and the Stimson Bow Roof Shed

If there was ever any doubt how well designed the Stimson Bow Shed is this video should put those fears to rest!



From: Far Reach Voyages

I tried

but it's not good. A few more days to heal up methinks. :-(

My own signature line says

"It's not a boat you've built till you've sworn at it, sweated over it, bled on it and cried beside it!" I made that up and use it on most of the boat building forms I post to.

Well tonight I added a bit more blood to the project.

I don't think it's broken. Just scraped up and swollen. Hurts like hell. Also banged my head and bit my tongue! Doh!

Safety Notice: Five Gallon Plastic Pails are no substitute for a step ladder!

I was working in the "Belly of the Beast" about to drill a couple of holes for more plastic ties when I stepped on the pail and "Wooosh" away it went out from under me! What a Doofus!

Guess I'll take it easy for a day or so! Standby.....

The first part of Stitch & Glue

is the stitching! In this case it's not thread we're using it's heavy duty plastic wire ties.

Once I got around the entire hull stitching the panels together and getting them all lined up correctly I'll begin the second part of the procedure, the gluing. It'll be while before I get to that part though. Some of these panels have to be bent quite radically to get them into their final shape especially around the bow section.

Someone on the builders forum suggested using round spacers on the inside of the stitches to help align the panels. It works!

That's it for now. Back to work tomorrow! Boy, five weeks just flew by! :-(

There's two sides to every story

just as there are two sides to every boat! :-)

With some help from Timmy and my Brother and Lori we wrestled the second side panel up into place. It had to be dragged out of the shed, flipped then brought back in and lifted into place. It took me a couple hours doing it on the other side by myself and only 5 mins with helpers! Doh! Anywho, it's up now. I'll spend some time tomorrow getting all the panels lined up for stitching. It's back to work on Tuesday (*Sigh*) so things will likely slow down a bit in the boat building arena.

This morning when I was clearing obstacles in the shed prior to moving the panels a storm decided to whip through Iroquois. I thought a freight train was roaring though the shed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UEOK0xkqKk

It doesn't show it too well on the video but the shed moves around a lot in a wind.

Yesterday was a ....

day of days. Our friends Peter & Nathalie launched their Bolger Windemere that they've been working on for 7+ years.

The final fit-out will take place while the boat is in the water in its new berth. There's still plenty of lil' details that'll make this boat truly special.

A heartfelt Congratulations Peter & Nat from Rick, Lori and the gooch squad (Shadow, Squirt, Boots, Momma & Baby).

And being inspired by all the wonderful things happening to other builders I decided it was time to get back into the shed today. I slept late but did manage to get some stuff done.

The next big task is hanging the side panels on the strongback. I was trying to get them up off the ground and they kept falling back, they're long and floppy and go where they wanna go! So I said frack this and hooked one to the winch and hoisted the bugger up and onto the strongback.

Getting these lined up and ready to be stitched is a bit of a chore. I've got some help coming tomorrow to hang the second panel which is on the far side and has to be taken outside, flipped then moved back inside and onto the forms. It'll be tight but I think 4 of us can do it.

I kinda felt like Jonah inside the whale when I took this shot.

That's it for today. It's almost 100 degs F in the shed today.

Things are happenin'

all over the place!

My friend Peter is launching the boat he built tomorrow! I'm more than willing to give up a days work in the shed to attend this special event.

I'm so excited I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight! :-)

On my side of the boat building universe I've joined the two halves of the boats bottom!

After this sets up I'll move onto the keel sides and bottom. Likely Saturday.

Nobody told me you had to wear armor to build a boat! I've been banging and bruising my shins for weeks now on the strongback and step ladders. Finally smartened up and got myself a set of shin pads. Cute huh?

If they save some skin they're worth it. :-)